OF  THE 


HON.  HENRY  CLAY 

ON  THE 

SUB-TREASURY  BILL, 

DELIVERED  IN  THE 

SENATE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES, 

JANUARY  20,  1840, 


BOSTON : 

PUBLISHED  BY  GEORGE  OSCAR  BARTLETT, 
No.  133  Washington  Street. 

1840. 


SPEECH  OF  MR.  CLAY 


ON  THE  20TH  OF  JANUARY,  1840. 


Mr.  President, 

It  is  no  less  the  duty  of  the  statesman  than  the  physician 
to  ascertain  the  exact  state  of  the  body  to  which  he  is  to  minister, 
before  he  ventures  to  prescribe  any  healing  remedy.  It  is  with  no 
pleasure,  but  with  profound  regret,  that  I  survey  the  present  condi¬ 
tion  of  our  country.  I  have  rarely,  I  think  never,  known  a  period 
of  such  universal  and  intense  distress.  The  general  government  is 
in  debt,  and  its  existing  revenue  is  inadequate  to  meet  its  ordinary 
expenditure.  The  states  are  in  debt, — some  of  them  largely  in  debt, 
insomuch  that  they  have  been  compelled  to  resort  to  the  ruinous  ex¬ 
pedient  of  contracting  new  loans  to  meet  the  interest  upon  prior 
loans;  and  the  people  are  surrounded  with  difficulties,  greatly  em¬ 
barrassed,  and  involved  in  debt.  Whilst  this  is,  unfortunately,  the 
general  state  of  the  country,  the  means  of  extinguishing  this  vast 
mass  of  debt  are  in  constant  diminution.  Property  is  falling  in  val¬ 
ue ;  all  the  great  staples  of  the  country  are  declining  in  price,  and 
destined,  I  fear,  to  further  decline.  The  certain  tendency  of  this 
very  measure  is  to  reduce  prices.  The  banks  are  rapidly  decreasing 
the  amount  of  their  circulation.  About  one  half  of  them,  extending 
from  New  Jersey  to  the  extreme  south-west,  have  suspended  specie 
payments,  presenting  an  image  of  a  paralytic,  one  moiety  of  whose 
body  is  stricken  with  palsy.  The  banks  are  without  a  head ;  and, 
instead  of  union,  concert,  and  co-operation  between  them,  we  behold 
jealousy,  distrust,  and  enmity.  We  have  no  currency  whatever,  pos¬ 
sessing  uniform  value  throughout  the  whole  country ;  that  which  we 
have,  consisting  almost  entirely  of  the  issues  of  banks,  is  in  a  state 


4 


of  the  utmost  disorder,  insomuch  that  it  varies,  in  comparison  with 
the  specie  standard,  from  par  to  fifty  per  cent,  discount.  Exchanges, 
too,  are  in  the  greatest  possible  confusion,  not  merely  between  dis¬ 
tant  parts  of  the  union,  but  between  cities  and  places  in  the  same 
neighborhood, — that  between  our  great  commercial  marts  of  New 
York  and  Philadelphia,  within  five  or  six  hours  of  each  other,  vacil¬ 
lating  between  seven  and  ten  per  cent.  The  products  of  our  agricul¬ 
tural  industry  are  unable  to  find  their  way  to  market,  from  the  want 
of  means  in  the  hands  of  traders  to  purchase  them,  or  from  the  want 
of  confidence  in  the  stability  of  things ;  many  of  our  manufactories 
stopped  or  stopping,  especially  in  the  important  branch  of  woollens; 
and  a  vast  accumulation  of  their  fabrics  on  hand,  owing  to  the  de¬ 
struction  of  confidence,  and  the  wretched  state  of  exchange  between 
between  different  sections  of  the  union. 

Such  is  the  unexaggerated  picture  of  our  present  condition.  And 
amidst  the  dark  and  dense  cloud  that  surrounds  us,  I  perceive  not 
one  gleam  of  light.  It  gives  me  nothing  but  pain  to  sketch  the  pic¬ 
ture.  But  duty  and  truth  require  that  existing  diseases  should  be 
fearlessly  examined,  and  probed  to  the  bottom  ;  we  shall  otherwise 
be  utterly  incapable  of  conceiving  or  applying  appropriate  remedies. 
If  the  present  unhappy  state  of  our  country  had  been  brought  upon 
the  people  by  their  folly  and  extravagance,  it  ought  to  be  borne  with 
fortitude,  and  without  complaint,  and  without  reproach.  But  it  is  my 
deliberate  judgment  that  it  has  not  been — that  the  people  are  not  to 
blame,  and  that  the  principal  causes  of  existing  embarrassments  are 
not  to  be  traced  to  them.  Sir,  it  is  not  my  purpose  to  waste  the 
time  or  excite  the  feelings  of  members  of  the  senate  by  dwelling  long 
on  what  I  suppose  to  be  those  causes.  My  object  is  a  better,  a 
higher,  and  I  hope  a  more  acceptable  one — to  consider  the  remedies 
proposed  for  the  present  exigency.  Still,  I  should  not  fulfil  my 
whole  duty,  if  I  did  not  briefly  say  that,  in  my  conscience,  I  believe 
our  pecuniary  distresses  have  mainly  sprung  from  the  refusal  to  re¬ 
charter  the  late  Bank  of  the  United  States  ;  the  removal  of  the  pub¬ 
lic  deposites  from  that  institution  ;  the  multiplication  of  state  banks 
in  consequence  ;  and  the  treasury  stimulus  given  to  them  to  extend 
their  operations;  the  bungling  manner  in  which  the  law  depositing 
the  surplus  treasure  with  the  states  was  executed  ;  the  treasury  cir¬ 
cular  ;  and,  although  last,  perhaps  not  least,  the  exercise  of  the 
power  of  the  veto  on  the  bill  for  distributing  among  the  states  the 
net  proceeds  of  the  sales  of  the  public  lands. 

What,  Mr.  President,  is  needed,  at  the  present  crisis,  to  restore 
the  prosperity  of  the  people?  A  sound  local  currency,  mixed  with  a 
currency  possessing  uniform  value  throughout  the  whole  country  ;  a  i 
re-establishment  of  regular  exchanges  between  different  parts  of  the 
union  ;  and  a  revival  of  general  confidence.  The  people  want,  in  i 
short,  good  government  at  Washington  ;  the  abandonment  of  rash 
and  ruinous  experiments  ;  the  practice  here  of  economy,  and  the 


o 


pursuit  of  the  safe  lights  of  experience.  Give  as  these,  and  the 
growth  of  our  population,  the  enterprise  of  our  people,  and  the  abun¬ 
dance,  variety,  and  richness  of  the  products  of  our  soil  and  of  our 
industry,  with  the  blessing  of  Providence,  will  carry  us  triumphantly 
through  all  our  complicated  embarrassments.  Deny  these — persevere 
in  a  mal-administration  of  government,  and  it  is  in  vain  that  the 
bounties  of  Heaven  are  profusely  scattered  around  us. 

There  is  one  man,  and  I  lament  to  say,  from  the  current  of  events 
and  the  progress  of  executive  and  party  power,  but  one  man,  at  pres¬ 
ent,  in  the  country,  who  can  bring  relief  to  it,  and  bind  up  the  bleed¬ 
ing  wounds  of  the  people.  He,  of  all  men  in  the  nation,  ought  to  feel 
as  a  parent  should  feel,  most  sensibly,  the  distresses  and  sufferings 
of  his  family.  But,  looking  to  his  public  course  and  his  official  acts, 
I  am  constrained  to  say  that  he  surveys  unconcerned  the  wide-spread 
ruin,  and  bankruptcy,  and  wretchedness  before  him,  'without  emotion, 
and  without  sympathy.  Whilst  all  the  elements  of  destruction  are 
at  work,  and  the  storm  is  raging,  the  chief  magistrate,  standing  in  the 
midst  of  his  unprotected  fellow-citizens,  on  the  distinguished  position 
of  honor  and  confidence  to  which  their  suffrages  have  elevated  him, 
deliberately  wraps  around  himself  the  folds  of  his  India  rubber  cloak, 
and,  lifting  his  umbrella  over  bis  head,  tells  them,  drenched  and 
shivering  as  they  are  under  the  beating  rain,  and  hail,  and  snow  fall¬ 
ing  upon  them,  that  he  means  to  take  care  of  himself  and  the  official 
corps,  aud  that  they  are  in  the  habit  of  expecting  too  much  from 
government,  and  must  look  out  for  their  own  shelter,  and  security, 
and  salvation. 

And  now  allow  me  to  examine,  and  carefully  and  candidly  consider 
the  remedy  which  this  bill  offers  to  a  suffering  people  for  the  unparal¬ 
leled  distresses  under  which  they  are  writhing.  I  will  first  analyze 
and  investigate  it,  as  its  friends  and  advocates  represent  it.  What 
is  it  1  What  is  this  measure,  which  has  so  long  and  so  deeply  agi¬ 
tated  this  country,  under  the  various  denominations  of  sub-treasury, 
independent  treasury,  and  divorce  of  the  state  from  banks  ?  What 
is  it  ?  Let  us  define  it  truly  and  clearly.  Its  whole  principle  con¬ 
sists  in  an  exaction  from  the  people  of  specie ,  in  the  payment  of  all 
their  duties  and  dues  to  government,  and  the  disbursement  of  specie 
by  the  government,  in  the  payment  of  all  salaries  and  of  all  the  cred¬ 
itors  of  the  government.  This  is  its  simple  and  entire  principle. 
Divest  the  bill  under  consideration  of  all  its  drapery  and  parapher¬ 
nalia,  this  is  its  naked,  unvarnished,  and  unexaggerated  principle, 
according  to  its  own  friends.  This  exclusive  use  of  specie,  in  all  re¬ 
ceipts  and  payments  of  the  government,  it  is  true,  is  not  to  he  instan¬ 
taneously  enforced  ;  but  that  is  the  direct  and  avowed  aim  and  object 
of  the  measure,  to  he  accomplished  gradually,  but  in  the  short  space 
of  a  little  more  than  three  years.  The  twenty-eight  sections  of  the 
bill,  with  all  its  safes,  and  vaults,  and  bars,  and  bolts,  and  receivers- 
general,  and  examiners,  have  nothing  more  nor  less  in  view  than  the 


6 


exaction  of  specie  from  the  people,  and  the  subsequent  distribution  of 
that  specie  among  the  officers  of  the  government  and  the  creditors  of 
the  government.  It  does  not  touch,  nor  profess  to  touch,  the  actual 
currency  of  the  currency.  It  leaves  the  local  banks  where  it  found 
them,  unreformed,  uncontrolled,  unchecked  in  all  their  operations. 
It  is  a  narrow,  selfish,  heartless  measure.  It  turns  away  from  the 
people,  and  abandons  them  to  their  hard  and  inexorable  fate,  leaving 
them  exposed  to  all  the  pernicious  consequences  of  an  unsound  cur¬ 
rency,  utterly  irregular  and  disordered  exchanges,  and  the  greatest 
derangement  in  all  business.  It  is  worse;  it  aggravates  and  perpet¬ 
uates  the  very  evils  which  the  government  will  not  redress  ;  for,  by 
going  into  the  market,  and  creating  a  new  and  additional  demand 
for  specie,  it  cripples  and  disables  the  state  banks,  and  renders  them 
incapable  of  furnishing  that  relief  to  the  people  which  a  parental 
government  is  bound  to  exert  all  its  energies  and  powers  to  afford. 
The  divorce  of  the  state  from  banks,  of  which  its  friends  boast,  is 
not  the  only  separation  which  it  makes  ;  it  is  a  separation  of  the 
government  from  the  constituency — a  disunion  of  the  interests  of  the 
servants  of  the  people  from  the  interests  of  the  people. 

This  bill,  then,  is  wholly  incommensurate  with  the  evils  under 
which  the  country  is  suffering.  It  leaves  them,  not  only  altogether 
unprovided  for,  but  aggravates  them.  It  carries  no  word  of  cheering 
hope  or  encouragement  to  a  depressed  people.  It  leaves  their  lan¬ 
guishing  business  in  the  same  state  of  hopeless  discouragement. 

But  its  .supporters  argue,  that  such  a  system  of  convertible  paper 
as  this  country  has  so  long  had  is  radically  wrong  ;  that  all  our  evils 
are  to  he  traced  to  the  banks;  and  that  the  sooner  they  are  put  down, 
and  a  currency  exclusively  metallic  is  established,  the  belter.  They 
further  argue,  that  such  a  metallic  currency  will  reduce  inflated 
prices,  lower  the  wages  of  labor,  enable  us  to  manufacture  cheaper, 
and  thereby  admit  our  manufacturers  to  maintain  a  successful  compe¬ 
tition  with  foreigners.  And  all  these  results,  at  some  future  time  or 
other,  are  to  be  brought  about  by  the  operation  of  this  measure. 

Mr.  President,  in  my  opinion,  a  currency  purely  metallic  is  neither 
desirable,  in  t lie  present  state  of  the  commercial  world,  nor,  if  it  were, 
is  it  practicable,  or  possible  to  be  attained  in  this  country.  And,  if  it 
were  possible,  it  could  not  be  brought  about  without  the  most 
friglitfol  and  disastrous  consequences,  creating  convulsion,  if  not 
revolution. 

Of  all  the  conditions  of  society,  that  is  most  prosperous  in  which 
there  is  a  gradual  and  regular  increase  of  the  circulating  medium,  and 
a  gradual  but  not  too  rapid  increase  in  the  value  of  property  and  the 
price  of  commodities.  In  such  a  state  of  tilings,  business  of  all  kinds 
is  active  and  animated  ;  every  department  of  it  flourishes,  and  labor 
is  liberally  rewarded.  No  sacrifices  are  made  of  property  ;  and  debt¬ 
ors  find,  without  difficulty,  the  means  of  discharging  promptly  their 
debts.  Men  hold  on  to  what  they  have,  without  the  apprehension  of 


7 


loss,  and  we  behold  no  glutted  markets.  Of  all  conditions  of  society, 
that  is  most  adverse,  in  which  there  is  a  constant  and  rapid  diminu¬ 
tion  of  the  amount  of  the  circulating  medium.  Debtors  become  una¬ 
ble  to  pay  their  debts ;  property  falls;  the  market  is  glutted;  busi¬ 
ness  declines,  and  the  laborer  is  thrown  out  of  employment.  In  such  a 
state  of  things,  the  imagination  goes  ahead  of  the  reality.  Sellers 
become  numerous,  from  the  apprehension  that  their  property,  now 
falling,  will  fall  still  lower;  and  purchasers  scarce,  from  an  unwilling¬ 
ness  to  make  investments  with  the  hazard  of  almost  certain  loss. 

Have  gentlemen  reflected  upon  the  consequences  of  their  system 
of  depletion?  I  have  already  stated  that  the  country  is  borne  down 
by  a  weight  of  debt.  If  the  currency  be  greatly  diminished,  as,  be¬ 
yond  all  example,  it  has  been,  how  is  this  debt  to  be  extinguished  ? 
Property,  the  resource  on  which  the  debtor  relied  for  his  payment, 
will  decline  in  value  ;  and  it  may  happen  that  a  man  who  honestly 
contracted  debt,  on  the  faith  of  property  which  had  a  value,  at  the 
time,  fully  adequate  to  warrant  the  debt,  will  find  himself  stripped  of 
all  his  property,  and  his  debt  remain  unextinguished.  The  gentle¬ 
man  from  Pennsylvania  (Mr.  Buchanan)  has  put  the  case  of  two 
nations,  in  one  of  which  the  amount  of  its  currency  shall  be  double 
what  it  is  in  the  other;  and,  as  he  contends,  the  prices  of  all  property 
will  be  double  in  the  former  nation  of  what  they  are  in  the  latter.  If 
this  be  true  of  two  nations,  it  must  be  equally  true  of  one,  whose  cir¬ 
culating  medium  is  atone  period  double  what  it  is  at  another.  Now, 
as  the  friends  of  the  bill  argue,  we  have  been,  and  yet  are,  in  this 
inflated  state;  our  currency  lias  been  double,  or  in  something  like 
that  proportion,  of  what  was  necessary,  and  we  must  come  down  to 
the  lowest  standard.  Do  they  not  perceive  that  inevitable  ruin  to 
thousands  must  be  the  necessary  consequence  ?  A  man,  for  exam¬ 
ple,  owning  property  to  the  value  of  $5,000,  contracts  a  debt  for 
$5,000.  By  the  reduction  of  one  halfof  the  currency  of  the  country, 
his  property,  in  effect,  becomes  reduced  to  the  value  of  $2,500  ;  but 
his  debt  undergoes  no  corresponding  reduction.  He  gives  up  all  his 
property,  and  remains  still  in  debt  $2,500.  Thus  this  measure  will 
operate  on  the  debtor  class  of  the  nation,  always  the  weaker  class, 
and  that  which,  for  that  reason,  most  needs  the  protection  of  gov¬ 
ernment. 

But,  if  the  effect  of  this  hard  money  policy  upon  the  debtor  class 
be  injurious,  it  is  still  more  disastrous,  if  possible,  on  the  laboring 
classes.  Enterprise  will  be  checked  or  stopped;  employment  will 
become  difficult;  and  the  poorer  classes  will  be  subject  to  the  greatest 
privations  and  distresses.  Heretofore,  it  has  been  one  of  the  boasts 
and  pretensions  of  the  dominant  party,  that  they  sought  to  elevate  the 
poor  by  depriving  the  rich  of  undue  advantages.  Now,  their  policy 
is  to  reduce  the  wages  of  labor  ;  and  this  is  openly  avowed  ;  and  it  is 
argued  by  them,  that  it  is  necessary  to  reduce  the  wages  of  American 
labor  to  the  low  standard  of  European  labor,  in  order  to  enable  the 


8 


American  manufacturer  to  enter  into  a  successful  competition  with 
the  European  manufacturer,  in  the  sale  of  their  respective  fabrics. 
Thus  is  this  dominant  party  perpetually  changing — one  day,  cajoling 
the  poor,  and  fulminating  against  the  rich  ;  and  the  next,  cajoling 
the  rich,  and  fulminating  against  the  poor.  It  was  but  yesterday  that 
we  heard  that  all  who  w’ere  trading  on  borrowed  capital  ought  to 
break.  It  was  but  yesterday  we  heard  denounced  the  long  estab¬ 
lished  policy  of  the  country,  by  which,  it  was  alleged,  the  poor  w  ere 
made  poorer,  and  the  rich  were  made  richer. 

Mr.  President,  of  all  the  subjects  of  national  policy,  not  one  ought 
to  be  touched  with  so  much  delicacy  as  that  of  the  wages, — in  other 
words,  the  bread  of  the  poor  man.  In  dwelling,  as  I  have  often 
done  with  inexpressible  satisfaction,  upon  the  many  advantages  of 
our  country,  there  is  not  one  that  has  given  me  more  delight  than  the 
high  price  of  manual  labor  ;  there  is  not  one  which  indicates  more 
clearly  the  prosperity  of  the  mass  of  the  community.  In  all  the  fea¬ 
tures  of  human  society,  there  are  none,  I  think,  which  more  decisively 
display  the  general  welfare  than  a  permanent  high  rate  of  wages,  and 
a  permanent  high  rate  of  interest.  Of  course,  I  do  not  mean  those 
excessive  high  rates,  of  temporary  existence,  which  result  from  sud¬ 
den  and  unexpected  demands  for  labor  or  capital,  and  which  may, 
and  generally  do,  evince  some  unnatural  and  extraordinary  stale  of 
things;  but  I  mean  a  settled,  steady,  and  durable  high  rate  of  wages 
of  labor,  and  in  erest  upon  money.  Such  a  state  demonstrates  activ¬ 
ity  and  profits  in  all  the  departments  of  business.  It  proves  that  the 
employer  can  afford  to  give  high  wages  to  the  laborer,  in  consequence 
of  the  profits  of  his  business,  and  the  borrower  high  interest  to  the 
lender,  in  consequence  of  the  gains  which  lie  makes  by  the  use  of 
capital.  On  the  contrary,  in  countries  where  the  business  is  dull  and 
languishing,  and  all  the  walks  of  society  are  full,  the  small  profits 
that  are  made  will  not  justify  high  interest  or  high  wages. 

Wages  of  labor  will  be  low  where  there  is  no  business,  and,  of 
course,  but  little  or  no  demand  for  labor;  or  where,  from  the  density 
of  population,  the  competition  for  employment  is  great,  and  the  de¬ 
mand  for  labor  is  not  equal  to  the  supply.  Similar  causes  will  tend 
to  the  reduction  of  the  rate  of  interest.  Our  vqst,  unpeopled  regions 
in  the  west  protect  us  against  the  evils  of  a  too  crowded  population. 
In  our  country,  such  is  the  variety  of  profitable  business  and  pursuits, 
that  there  is  scarcely  any  in  which  one  can  engage  with  diligence, 
integrity,  and  ordinary  skill,  in  regular  and  ordinary  times,  that  he  is 
not  sure  of  being  amply  rewarded.  Surveying  our  happy  condition, 
in  this  respect,  it  was,  during  the  last  war,  remarked  by  the  present 
Lord  Jefferies,  that  America  was  the  heaven  of  the  poor  man,  and  the 
hell  of  the  rich.  There  was  extravagance  in  the  observation,  mixed 
with  some  truth.  It  would  have  been  more  accurate  to  have  said 
that,  with  good  government,  it  was  an  earthly  heaven,  both  of  the 
rich  and  poor. 


9 


It  was  contended,  however,  that  the  reduction  of  wages  would  be 
only  nominal ;  that,  an  exclusive  specie  currency  being  established, 
the  prices  of  all  commodities  would  fall ;  and  that  the  laborer  would 
be  able  to  command  as  many  of  the  necessaries  of  life  with  his  low 
wages  as  he  can  at  present. 

The  great  error  of  senators  on  the  other  side  is,  that  they  do  not 
sufficiently  regard  the  existing  structure  of  society,  the  habits  and 
usages  which  prevail, — in  short,  the  actual  state  of  things.  All  wise 
legislation  should  be  founded  upon  the  condition  of  society  as  it  is  ; 
and,  even  where  reform  is  necessary,  it  should  be  introduced  slowly, 
cautiously,  and  with  a  careful  and  vigilant  attention  to  all  conse¬ 
quences.  But  gentlemen  seem  disposed  to  consider  themselves  at 
liberty  to  legislate  for  a  new  people,  just  sprung  into  existence  and 
commencing  its  career — one  for  which  they  may,  without  reference 
to  what  they  see  all  around  them,  speculate  and  theorize  at  pleasure. 
Now,  if  we  were  such  a  people,  and  were  deliberating  on  the  question 
of  what  was  the  best  medium  of  circulation  to  represent  the  property 
and  transact  the  business  of  the  country,  it  is  far  from  being  certain 
that  it  would  be  deemed  wisest  to  adopt  an  exclusive  specie  standard. 
But,  when  we  glance  at  society  as  it  actually  exists,  with  all  its  rela¬ 
tions  and  ramifications,  its  engagements,  debts,  wants,  habits,  customs, 
nothing  can  be  more  unwise,  it  seems  to  me,  than  to  attempt  so  radi¬ 
cal  a  change  as  that  which  is  contemplated. 

I  cannot  admit  that  the  laborer,  with  his  own  wages,  would  be  in 
as  eligible  a  situation  as  he  now  is.  The  argument  excludes  all  con¬ 
sideration  of  his  condition  during  the  transition  from  the  paper  to  the 
specie  medium.  In  the  descending  process  from  an  abundant  to  a 
scarce  circulation,  there  would  be  for  him  nothing  but  distress  and 
wretchedness  ;  and  he  would  be  in  the  greatest  danger  of  starvation 
before  the  El  Dorado  of  gentlemen  was  reached.  The  adjustment 
of  prices  to  the  state  of  the  currency  is  not  so  sudden  a  work  as  is 
imagined.  Long  after  the  specie  standard  should  be  established,  the 
old  prices  of  many  articles  would  remain  ;  and  all  foreign  produc¬ 
tions,  which  enter  into  the  consumption  of  the  poor  man,  would  con¬ 
tinue  unaffected  by  our  domestic  currency.  If  it  be  true  that  there 
would  be  no  alteration  in  the  condition  of  the  laborer ;  if  he  would 
really  get  as  much,  in  value,  in  the  new  state  of  things  as  in  the  old, 
how  is  that  of  the  capitalist,  engaged  in  manufactures,  to  be  improved  ? 
Would  not  his  situation  also  remain  unaltered  ? 

The  assumption  that  an  exclusive  hard  money  circulation  is  best 
for  the  laborer,  best  for  the  manufacturer,  best  for  the  country,  is 
against  all  the  experience  of  the  world.  Beyond  all  doubt,  England 
is  the  most  prosperous  of  all  the  nations  of  the  old  world,  and  Eng¬ 
land  is  the  greatest  paper  money  country  that  exists.  Her  manu¬ 
factures  find  a  market  in  every  portion  of  the  globe  ;  her  operatives 
and  laborers  are  paid  better,  and  fed  better,  than  any  in  Europe. 
Have  the  manufacturers  of  the  hard  money  countries  of  the  conti- 


10 


nent  prevailed  over  those  of  England,  and  driven  them  out  of  the 
market,  in  fair  competition  ?  Far  from  it.  Their  policy  is  to  ex¬ 
clude,  by  prohibitions  and  heavy  duties,  the  entry  of  British  goods 
into  their  ports.  England  has  sought  to  make  treaties  with  them  all, 
and  especially  with  France,  upon  the  basis  of  free  trade  ;  and  France 
has  replied  that  her  manufactures  are  too  much  behind  those  of  Eng¬ 
land  to  admit  of  their  being  placed  upon  a  footing  of  equality.  Pa¬ 
per  money-inflated  England  manufactures  about  two  thirds  of  all 
the  cotton  exported  from  the  United  States,  and  her  cotton  manufac¬ 
ture  alone  is  probably  greater  than  that  of  all  the  rest  of  Europe. 

But,  Mr.  President,  if  the  banishment  from  circulation  of  all  bank 
paper,  and  the  exclusive  use  of  specie  in  this  country,  were  desirable, 
is  it  practicable  ?  can  it  be  possibly  brought  about?  I  have  said  that 
the  legislator  is  bound  to  have  due  regard  to  the  wants,  wishes,  ne¬ 
cessities,  and  condition  of  the  country  for  which  he  acts.  But  a 
practical  American  statesman  has  a  further  duty  to  perform — that  of 
attentively  considering  the  distribution  of  the  power  of  government 
in  this  confederacy.  Here  we  have  local  governments  for  the  re¬ 
spective  states,  and  a  general  government  for  the  whole.  The  gene¬ 
ral  government  has  but  few,  limited,  and  well-defined  powers, — the 
states  severally  possessing  all  power  not  denied  to  them  or  delegated 
by  the  federal  constitution.  Whatever  difference  of  opinion  might 
exist,  if  it  were  a  new  question,  it  cannot  now  be  controverted  that 
each  of  the  twenty-six  state  governments  has  the  power  to  bring  into 
existence  as  many  banks  as  it  pleases.  Banks  have  accordingly 
been  created,  and  will  continue,  and  must  exist,  in  spite  of  the  gene¬ 
ral  government.  The  paper  of  banks  will  therefore  remain,  as  it  has 
been,  a  part  of  the  general  circulation,  in  defiance  of  any  policy 
which  this  government  may  proclaim.  And,  if  one  or  more  of  the 
states  were  to  adopt  the  hard  money  policy,  there  would  be  others 
which  would  find,  in  the  very  forbearance  of  certain  members  of  the 
confederacy  to  establish  or  continue  banks,  a  fresh  motive  to  create 
and  sustain  them ;  for  the  issues  of  their  banks  would  run  into  the 
states  which  had  them  not,  and  they  would  thus  appropriate  to  them¬ 
selves,  at  the  expense  of  others,  all  the  benefits  of  banking.  I  recol¬ 
lect  well  how  banks  were  originally  first  introduced  into  many  of  the 
southern  and  western  states.  They  found  themselves  exposed  to  all 
the  inconveniences,  without  enjoying  the  benefits  of  the  banking  sys¬ 
tem  ;  and  they  were  reduced  to  the  necessity  of  establishing  banks  to 
share  the  advantages,  as  well  as  the  disadvantages,  of  the  system. 

Banks,  bank  notes,  a  convertible  paper  money,  are  therefore  inev¬ 
itable.  There  is  no  escape  from  them.  You  may  deliver  as  many 
homilies  as  you  please,  send  forth  from  this  capitol  as  many  essays 
and  disquisitions  as  you  think  proper,  circulate  presidents  messages 
denouncing  them  as  widely  as  you  choose,  and  thunder  forth  from  a 
party  press  as  loud  and  long  as  you  can  against  hanks,  and  they  will 
continue  to  exist,  in  spite  of  you.  What,  then,  is  it  the  duty  of  a 


11 


a  wise  and  practical  federal  statesman  to  do?  Since  he  finds  a  state 
of  things  which  is  unalterable,  to  which  he  must  submit,  however 
convinced  he  may  be  of  the  utility  of  a  change,  his  duty  is  to  accom¬ 
modate  his  measures  to  this  immutable  state  of  public  affairs.  And, 
if  he  cannot  trust  the  eight  or  nine  hundred  local  banks  which  are 
dispersed  through  the  country,  create  a  federal  bank,  amenable  to  the 
general  government,  subject  to  its  inspection  and  authority,  and  capa¬ 
ble  of  supplying  a  general  currency  worthy  of  its  confidence  ;  make, 
in  short,  the  government  of  the  whole  partake  of  the  genius,  and  con¬ 
form  to  the  fixed  character,  of  the  parts.  , 

Mr.  President,  I  never  have  believed  that  the  local  banks  were 
competent  to  supply  such  a  general  currency,  of  uniform  value,  as 
this  people  wants,  or  to  perform  those  financial  offices  which  are 
necessary  to  a  successful  administration  of  this  government.  I  pro¬ 
nounced  them  incompetent,  at  the  period  of  the  removal  of  the  depos- 
ites  ;  and  we  foretold  the  unfortunate  state  of  things  that  now  exists. 
But  the  party  in  power,  which  now  denounces  them,  proclaimed 
their  entire  ability,  not  only  to  supply  as  good,  but  a  better  currency 
than  that  which  was  furnished  by  the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  and 
to  perform  all  the  financial  duties  which  that  institution  fulfilled. 
After  that  party  had  succeeded  in  putting  down  the  Bank  of  the 
United  States,  and  got  their  system  of  state  banks  into  full  opera¬ 
tion,  it  continued,  year  after  year,  to  announce  to  the  public  that  all 
its  expectations  had  been  fully  realized. 

A  Bank  of  the  United  States  established  by  this  Government  would 
not  only  furnish  it  a  currency  in  which  it  might  safely  confide,  in  all 
receipts  and  payments,  and  execute  every  financial  office,  but  it 
would  serve  as  a  centinel,  a  cement,  and  a  regulator  to  the  State 
banks.  The  Senator  from  Pennsylvania  has  urged  that  the  present 
Bank  of  the  United  States  of  Pennsylvania  has  a  charter  more  ex¬ 
tensive  than  that  of  the  late  Bank  of  the  United  States  ;  that  it  is 
in  fact  the  old  bank  with  a  new  charter;  and  that,  with  all  its  vast 
resources  and  means,  it  lias  been  not  only  unable  to  act  as  a  regula¬ 
tor  of  the  local  banks,  but  was  recently  the  first  to  set  the  pernicious 
example  of  a  suspension  of  specie  payments. 

Mr.  President,  can  the  distinguished  Senator  be  serious  in  his  de¬ 
scription  of  these  attributes  of  the  Pennsylvania  bank  ?  Surely  he 
must  have  intended  that  part  of  his  speech  for  some  other  theatre. 
In  the  first  place,  Pennsylvania,  besides  sundry  other  onerous  condi¬ 
tions  of  loans  and  subscriptions  to  objects  of  internal  improvements, 
levied  upon  the  present  bank,  in  the  form  of  bonus,  some  four  or  five 
millions  of  dollars.  Then  the  General  Government  has  withdrawn 
from  it  the  seven  millions  of  stock  which  it  held  in  the  old  bank — a 
circumstance  which  I  have  no  doubt  has  tended  to  cripple  its  opera¬ 
tions.  And  it  is  wholly  without  the  deposites  of  the  Government, 
w'hich  the  former  bank  possessed.  Instead  of  being  an  ally,  the 
General  Government  has  been  in  the  relation  of  an  enemy  to  it. 


12 


And  it  has  had  to  encounter  all  the  enmity  of  a  powerful  party  within 
the  bosom  of  the  Commonwealth.  So  far  from  assuming  the  office 
of  a  regulator  of  the  local  banks,  its  late  distinguished  President, 
upon  whose  authority  the  Senator  relies  for  proof  of  the  extent  and 
liberality  of  its  new  charter,  expressly  declared  that  it  had  ceased  to 
be  a  general  agent,  and  had  retired  within  the  circle  of  its  State  du¬ 
ties.  So  far  from  having  derived  any  strength  from  its  connexion 
with  the  late  Bank  of  the  United  States,  there  cannot  be  a  doubt 
that  that  connexion  rendered  it  far  less  efficient  than  it  would  have 
been,  if  it  had  gone  into  operation  with  an  unencumbered  capital, 
freshly  subscribed,  of  thirty-five  millions  of  dollars. 

To  guard  against  all  misconception  or  misrepresentation,  I  repeat, 
what  I  said  on  a  former  occasion,  that,  although  I  am  convinced, 
thoroughly  convinced,  that  this  country  cannot  get  along  well  with¬ 
out  a  Bank  of  the  United  States.  I  have  no  thought  of  proposing 
such  a  bank,  and  have  no  wish  to  see  it  proposed  by  any  other,  until 
it  is  demanded  by  a  clear  and  undisputed  majority  of  the  People  of 
the  United  States. 

Seeing  that  a  Bank  of  the  United  States  could  not  be  established, 
two  years  ago  I  expressed  my  willingness  to  make  an  experiment 
with  the  State  banks,  rather  than  resort  to  this  perilous  measure. 
And  now,  such  are  my  deep  convictions  of  the  fatal  tendency  of  this 
project  of  a  sub-treasury,  that  1  would  greatly  prefer  the  employment 
of  the  agency  of  State  banks.  But  whilst  I  should  entertain  hopes 
of  their  success,  I  confess  that  I  should  not  be  without  strong  appre¬ 
hensions  of  their  failure.  Mv  belief  is,  that  the  State  banks  will  be 

•s  7 

constantly  exposed  to  disorder  and  derangement  without  the  co-opera¬ 
tion  of  a  Bank  of  the  United  States;  and  that  our  banking  system 
will  only  be  safe  and  complete  when  vve  shall  have  both  a  Bank  of 
the  United  States  and  State  Banks. 

We  are  told  by  the  President  of  the  United  States,  in  his  Message 
at  the  opening  of  the  session,  that  a  great  moneyed  power  exists  in 
London  that  exerts  a  powerful  influence  on  this  country  ;  that  it  is 
the  result  of  the  credit  system  ;  and  that  every  bank  established  in  a 
remote  village  in  this  country  becomes  bound  to  that  power  by  a  cord, 
which  it  touches  at  its  pleasure. 

There  is,  sir,  some  truth  in  this  representation,  and  every  genuine 
American  must  feel  it  with  shame  and  regret.  It  is  a  melancholy  fact 
that  the  arrival  of  steam  vessels  in  the  port  of  New  York  from  Eng¬ 
land  is  looked  for  with  more  curiosity  and  interest,  on  account  of  the 
financial  intelligence  which  they  bear  from  London  and  the  Bank  of 
England,  than  the  arrival  of  the  mail  from  Congress.  Our  people 
have  been  taught,  by  sad  experience,  to  expect  nothing  good  from  the 
Councils  of  their  own  country,  and  turn  their  attention  towards  the 
operations  in  a  foreign  country.  Was  this  eager  inquiry  into  the 
transactions  of  the  Bank  of  England  made  during  the  existence  of 
the  Bank  of  the  United  States?  No,  sir,  no,  sir.  You  denounced 


13 


this  bank  as  a  monster,  and  destroyed  it ;  and  you  have  thrown  us 
linto  the  jaws  of  a  foreign  monster,  which  we  can  neither  cage  nor 
■control.  You  tore  from  us  our  best  shield  against  the  Bank  of  Eng¬ 
land,  and  now  profess  to  be  surprised  at  the  influence  which  it  exer- 
[cises  upon  our  interests  !  We  do  not  find  that  the  continental  nations 
of  Europe,  that  have  national  banks,  complain  of  the  influence  of  the 
[Bank  of  England  upon  them.  On  the  contrary,  the  Bank  of  England 
[has  recently  been  compelled  to  apply  to  the  Bank  of  France  for  a 
large  sum  of  specie  to  sustain  its  credit  and  character. 

But,  sir,  we  must  look  to  a  higher  and  much  more  potent  cause 
jthan  the  operations  of  any  bank,  foreign  or  domestic,  for  the  lively 
interest  which  is  felt  in  this  country  in  the  monetary  transactions  of 
England.  In  England  the  credit  system,  as  it  is  called,  exists  in  a 
much  more  extensive  degree  than  in  this  country;  and  if  it  were  of 
the  nature  of  that  system,  as  is  alleged,  to  render  one  country  depend¬ 
ent  upon  another,  why  should  not  England  be  more  dependent  upon 
jus  than  we  upon  England  ?  The  real  cause  of  our  dependence  arises 
out  of  the  unfavorable  balance  of  our  foreign  trade.  We  import  too 
much  and  export  too  little.  We  buy  too  much  abroad,  and  make  too 
I  little  at  home.  If  we  would  shake  off  this  degrading  foreign  depend¬ 
ence,  we  must  produce  more,  or  buy  less.  Increase  our  productions, 
in  all  the  variety  of  forms  in  which  our  industry  can  be  employed  ; 
augment  the  products  of  the  soil,  extend  our  manufactures,  give  new 
stimulus  to  our  tonnage  and  fishing  interests,  sell  more  than  we  buy, 
get  out  of  debt  and  keep  out  of  debt  to  the  foreigner,  and  he  will  no 
jlonger  exert  an  influence  upon  our  destiny. 

And  this  unfavorable  balance  of  our  foreign  trade  is  wholly  inde- 
[pendent  of  and  unconnected  with  the  nature  of  the  character  of  the 
currency  of  the  country,  whether  it  be  exclusively  metallic,  or  mixed 
of  paper  and  the  precious  metals.  England,  in  a  great  measure,  by 
means  of  that  credit  or  paper  system,  now  so  much  denounced,  has 
become  the  centre  of  the  commerce,  the  exchanges,  and  the  moneyed 
loperations  of  the  world.  By  the  extent,  variety,  and  perfection  of 
[her  manufactures,  she  lays  most  nations  that  admit  them  freely  under 
[contribution  to  her.  And,  if  we  had  no  currency  but  specie,  we 
[should  be  just  as  much  exposed  to  the  moneyed  power  of  London,  or, 
[which  is  the  true  state  of  the  case,  to  the  effects  of  an  unfavorable 
[balance  of  trade,  as  we  now  are.  We  should  probably  be  more  so  ; 
|because  a  larga  portion  of  the  specie  of  the  country  being  in  the 
vaults  of  a  few  depositories,  it  would  be  easier  then  to  obtain  it  for 
ixporlation,  in  the  operations  of  commerce,  than  now,  when  it  is  dis- 
>ersed  among  nine  hundred  or  a  thousand  banks. 

What  was  our  condition  during  the  colonial  state,  when,  with  the 
jxception  of  small  amounts  of  Government  paper  money,  we  had 
^10  currency  but  specie,  and  no  banks?  Were  we  not  constantly 
tnd  largely  in  debt  to  England  ?  Was  not  our  specie  perpetually 
Irained  to  obtain  supplies  of  British  Goods?  Do  not  you  recollect 


14 


that  the  subject  of  the  British  debts  formed  one  of  those  matters 
which  were  embraced  in  the  negociations  and  treaty  of  peace  which 
terminated  the  revolutionary  war  1  And  that  it  was  a  topic  of  angry 
and  protracted  discussion  long  after,  until  it  was  finally  arranged  by 
Mr.  Jay’s  treaty  of  1794  ? 

Look  into  the  works  of  Dr.  Franklin,  in  which  there  is  more  prac¬ 
tical  good  sense  to  be  found  than  is  to  be  met  with  in  the  same 
compass  any  where.  He  was  the  agent  of  Pennsylvania  from  about 
the  middle  of  the  last  century  until  the  breaking  out  of  the  Revolu¬ 
tionary  war,  and  a  part  of  the  time  the  agent,  also,  of  the  Colonies 
of  Georgia  and  Massachusetts  His  correspondence  shows  that  the 
specie  of  the  Colonies  was  constantly  flowing  from  them  for  the  pur¬ 
chase  of  British  goods,  insomuch  that  the  Colonies  were  left  abso¬ 
lutely  destitute  of  a  local  currency;  and  one  of  the  main  objects  of 
his  agency  was  to  obtain  the  sanction  of  the  parent  country  to  those 
issues  of  paper  money  which  the  necessities  of  Pennsylvania  com¬ 
pelled  her  to  make.  The  issue  was  strenuously  opposed  by  the 
merchants  engaged  in  the  American  trade,  on  account  of  the  difficulty 
which  it  created  in  making  collections  and  remittances  home.  So 
great  was  that  drain  of  specie,  that  we  know'  that  Virginia  and  other 
Colonies  were  constrained  to  adopt  tobacco  as  a  substitute  for  money. 

The  principal  cause,  therefore,  of  the  influence  of  the  moneyed 
power  of  London  over  this  country  is  to  be  found  in  the  vast  extent 
of  our  dealings  with  her.  The  true  remedy  is  to  increase  our  manu¬ 
factures  and  purchase  less  of  hers,  and  to  augment  our  exports  by 
all  the  means  in  our  power,  and  to  diminish  our  imports  as  much  as 
possible.  We  must  increase  our  productions,  or  economise  much 
more  than  we  have  done.  New  Jersey,  before  the  Revolution, 
being  much  pressed  for  <£100,003  sterling,  Dr.  Franklin  proposed  a 
plan  by  which  site  could,  in  one  year,  make  up  the  sum.  The  plan 
was  this: — She  was  in  the  habit  of  importing  annually  from  Eng¬ 
land,  merchandise  to  the  amount  of  £200,000.  He  recommended 
that  the  ladies  should  buv  only  half  the  amount  of  silks,  cajicoes, 
teas,  &c.  during  the  year,  which  they  had  been  in  the  habit  of  con¬ 
suming  ;  and  in  this  wav,  by  saving,  the  Colony  would  make  the 
required  sum  of  £100,000.  If  we  would,  for  a  few  years,  import 
only  half  the  amount  from  England  that  we  have  been  in  the  habit 
of  doing,  we  should  no  longer  feel  the  influence  of  the  London 
money  power. 

Mr.  President,  gentlemen,  in  my  humble  opinion,  utterly  deceive 
themselves  in  supposing  that  this  measure  is  demanded  by  a  ma¬ 
jority  of  the  People  of  the  United  States,  and  in  alleging  that  this  is 
proven  by  the  result  of  elections  of  the  past  year.  That  there  were  a 
vast  majority  of  them  opposed  to  it  was  demonstrated  incontestably 
by  previous  elections.  The  elections  of  the  last  year  did  not  in  many, 
perhaps  most  instances,  turn  at  all  upon  the  merits  of  this  measure. 
In  several  States  the  People  were  deceived  by  assurances  that  the 


15 


sub-treasury  was  at  an  end,  and  would  be  no  longer  agitated.  In 
others,  the  People  bad  reason  to  be  dissatisfied  with  the  conduct  of 
their  banks;  and  they  were  artfully  led  to  believe  that  this  bill  would 
supply  a  corrective  of  the  errors  of  the  banking  system.  And  where 
they  have  apparently  yielded  their  assent  to  the  bill,  it  has  been  that 
sort  of  assent  which  the  patient  yields,  whose  constitution  has  been 
exhausted  and  destroyed  by  the  experiments  of  empiricism,  and  who 
finally  consents  to  take  the  last  quack  medicine  offered  to  him  in  the 
hope  of  saving  his  life.  I  know  the  People  of  the  United  States  well. 
They  are  ever  ready  cheerfully  to  submit  to  any  burden  demanded 
by  the  interest,  the  honor,  or  the  glory  of  their  country.  But  what 
people  ever  consented  to  increase  their  own  burdens  unnecessarily? 
The  effect  of  this  measure  is,  by  exacting  specie  exclusively  from  the 
People,  and  paying  it  out  to  the  official  corps  and  the  public  creditor, 
to  augment  the  burdens  of  the  People,  and  to  swell  the  emoluments 
of  office.  It  is  an  insult  to  the  understanding  and  judgment  of  the 
enlightened  people  of  the  United  States  to  assert  that  they  can  ap¬ 
prove  such  a  measure. 

No  true  patriot  can  contemplate  the  course  of  the  party  in  power 
without  the  most  painful  and  mortified  feelings.  They  began  some 
years  ago  their  war  on  the  Bank  of  the  United  States.  It  was  dan¬ 
gerous  to  liberty  ;  it  had  failed  to  fulfil  the  purposes  of  its  institution  ; 
it  did  not  furnish  a  sound  currency,  although  the  sun,  in  all  its  course, 
never  shone  upon  a  better;  it  was,  in  short,  a  monster,  which  was 
condemned  to  death,  and  it  was  executed  accordingly.  During  the 
progress  of  that  war,  the  State  banks  were  the  constant  theme  of 
praise,  in  speech  and  song,  of  the  dominant  party.  They  were  the 
best  institutions  in  the  world,  free  from  all  danger  to  public  liberty, 
capable  of  carrying  on  the  exchanges  of  the  country,  and  of  perform¬ 
ing  the  financial  duties  to  Government,  and  of  supplying  a  far  better 
currency  for  the  people  than  the  Bank  of  the  United  States.  We 
told  you  that  the  State  banks  would  not  do,  without  the  co-operation 
of  a  Bank  of  the  United  States.  We  told  you  that  you  would  find 
them  a  weak  league — a  mere  fleet  of  open  boats  tied  together  by  a 
hickory  whith,  and  which  the  first  storm  would  disperse  and  upset. 
But  you  scorned  all  our  warnings,  and  continued  year  after  year  to 
puff  and  praise  the  operations  of  these  banks.  You  had  the  boldness, 
in  the  face  of  this  abused  nation,  to  aver  that  the  country  had  been 
supplied  by  them  with  a  better  currency  and  better  exchanges  than 
it  had  been  by  the  Bank  of  the  United  States!  Well,  by  your  own 
measures,  by  your  Treasury  Circular,  distribution  of  the  surplus,  &c. 
you  accelerated  the  catastrophe  of  the  suspension  of  the  hanks.  You 
began  with  promises  to  the  People  of  better  currency,  better  times, 
more  security  to  civil  liberty;  and  you  end  with  no  currency  at  all, 
the  worst  possible  times,  an  increase  of  Executive  power,  and  a  con¬ 
sequent  increase  of  danger  to  civil  liberty.  You  began  with  promises 
to  fill  the  pockets  of  the  People,  and  you  end  with  emptying  theirs 
and  filling  your  own. 


16 


I  now  proceed,  sir,  to  the  object  which  constituted  the  main  pur¬ 
pose  of  my  rising  at  this  time.  I  have  hitherto  considered  the  bill, 
as  its  friends  in  the  Senate  represent  it,  as  a  measure  simply  for  ex¬ 
acting  specie,  keeping  it  in  the  custody  of  officers  of  the  Government, 
and  disbursing  it  in  a  course  of  administration.  I  mean  now  to  show 
that,  whatever  its  friends  here  may  profess  or  believe,  the  bill  lays 
the  foundations  deep  and  broad  of  a  Government  bank — a  Treasury 
bank,  under  the  sole  management  of  the  President.  Let  us  first  de¬ 
fine  a  bank.  It  may  have  three  faculties,  separately  or  combined. 
The  faculty  of  issues,  entering  into  and  forming  a  part  of  the  circu¬ 
lating  medium  of  the  country  ;  that  of  receiving  deposites  ;  and  that 
of  making  discounts.  Any  one  of  these  three  faculties  make  it  a 
bank;  and  by  far  the  most  important  of  the  three  is  that  of  the 
power  of  issues.  That  this  bill  creates  a  bank  of  issues,  I  most  sin¬ 
cerely  believe,  and  shall  now  attempt  to  prove  ;  and  the  proof  will  be 
first  extraneous,  and  secondly  intrinsic. 

As  to  the  extraneous  proof,  I  rely  upon  the  repeated  declarations 
of  the  late  President  of  the  United  States  in  his  annual  messages. 
On  more  than  one  occasion  he  stated  the  practicability  of  establish¬ 
ing  a  bank  on  the  revenue  of  the  Government,  and  to  be  under  the 
superintendence  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  And  when  he 
vetoed  the  charter  of  the  late  Bank  of  the  United  States,  he  expressly 
declared  that,  if  Congress  bad  applied  to  him,  he  could  have  furnished 
the  scheme  of  a  bank  free  from  all  constitutional  objections  ;  doubt¬ 
less  meaning  a  Treasury  bank.  The  present  Chief  Magistrate  and 
the  present  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  have,  also,  repeatedly,  in  lan¬ 
guage,  in  their  messages  and  reports,  characteristically  ambiguous, 
it  is  true,  but  sufficiently  intelligible,  intimated  the  facilities  which 
the  commerce  and  business  of  the  country  would  derive  from  the 
drafts  issued  by  the  Treasury  in  virtue  of  this  bill.  The  party,  its 
press,  and  its  leaders,  have  constantly  put  this  sub-treasury  scheme 
in  competition  with  a  Bank  of  the  United  States,  and  contended  that 
the  issue  was  sub-treasury  or  Bank  of  the  United  States.  But  how 
can  they  be  compared  or  come  in  competition  with  each  other,  if  the 
most  important  function  of  a  Bank  of  the  United  States,  that  of  sup¬ 
plying  a  medium  of  general  circulation  and  uniform  value,  is  not  to 
be  performed  under  this  bill  ? 

1  pass  to  the  more  important,  and  I  think,  conclusive  proof,  sup¬ 
plied  by  the  provisions  themselves  of  the  bill.  After  providing  that 
all  money  paid  to  Government  for  duties,  public  lands,  and  other 
dues,  shall  be  deposited  with  the  Treasurer  of  the  United  States,  the 
receivers  general  and  the  mints,  the  tenth  section  enacts: — 

“  That  it  shall  be  lawful  for  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  to  trans¬ 
fer  the  moneys  in  the  hands  of  any  depositary  hereby  constituted,  to 
the  Treasury  of  the  United  States  ;  to  the  Mint  at  Philadelphia  ;  to 
the  Branch  Mint  at  New  Orleans;  or  to  the  offices  of  either  of  the 
receivers  general  of  public  moneys,  by  this  act  directed  to  be  appoint- 


17 


ed  ;  to  be  there  safely  kept,  according  to  the  provisions  of  this  act; 
and  also  to  transfer  moneys  in  the  hands  of  any  one  depositary  con- 
stituted  by  this  act,  to  any  other  depositary  constituted  by  the  same, 
at  his  discretion,  and  as  the  safety  of  the  public  moneys  and  the  con¬ 
venience  of  the  public  service  shall  seem  to  him  to  require  ;  which 
authority  to  transfer  the  moneys  belonging  to  the  Post  Office  Depart¬ 
ment  is  also  hereby  conferred  upon  the  Postmaster  General,  so  far  as 
its  exercise  by  him  may  be  consistent  with  the  provisions  of  existing 
laws;  and  every  depositary  constituted  by  this  act  shall  keep  his  ac¬ 
count  of  the  money  paid  to  or  deposited  with  him,  belonging  to  the 
Post  Office  Department,  separate  and  distinct  from  the  account  kept 
by  him  of  other  public  moneys  so  paid  or  deposited.  And  for  the 
purpose  of  payments  on  the  public  account,  it  shall  be  lawful  for  the 
Treasurer  of  the  United  States  to  draw  upon  any  of  the  said  deposi¬ 
taries,  as  he  may  think  most  conducive  to  the  public  interests,  or  to 
the  convenience  of  the  public  creditors,  or  both.” 

Thus  is  the  Secretary  invested  with  unlimited  authority  to  transfer 
the  public  money  from  one  depositary  to  another,  and  to  concentrate 
it  all,  it  he  pleases,  at  a  single  point.  But,  without  this  provision,  the 
city  of  New  York  necessarily  must  be  the  place  at  which  the  largest 
portion  of  the  public  money  will  be  constantly  in  deposite.  It  col¬ 
lects  alone  about  two  thirds  of  the  duties  on  imports,  and  is  becoming, 
if  it  he  not  already,  the  money  centre  of  the  United  States.  It  is 
not  indispensable,  to  create  a  bank  of  issues,  that  the  place  of  issue 
and  the  place  of  payment  should  be  identical.  The  issue  of  the  pa¬ 
per  may  be  at  one  city,  and  the  place  of  payment  may  be  a  different 
and  even  distant  city.  Nor  is  the  form  of  the  paper  material,  so  as 
to  carry  it  into  the  general  circulation  of  the  money  of  the  country. 
Whether  it  be  in  the  shape  of  bank  notes,  hank  checks,  post  notes, 
or  Treasury  drafts,  is  of  no  consequence.  If  there  be  confidence  in 
it,  and  the  paper  be  of  convenient  amount,  passes  by  delivery,  and 
entitles  the  holder  to  demand  the  specie  upon  its  face,  at  bis  pleasure, 
it  will  enter  into  the  general  circulation  ;  and  the  extent  of  its  circu¬ 
lation  will  be  governed  by  the  amount  issued,  and  the  confidence 
which  it  enjoys. 

I  presume  that  no  one  will  contest  these  principles.  Let  us  apply 
them  to  the  provisions  of  this  bill.  The  last  clause  of  the  tenth  sec¬ 
tion,  already  cited,  declares  : — 

“  And  for  the  purpose  of  payments  on  the  public  account,  it 
shall  he  lawful  for  the  treasurer  of  the  United  States  to  draw  upon 
any  of  the  said  depositaries  as  he  may  think  most  conducive  to  the 
public  interests,  or  to  the  convenience  of  the  public  creditors,  or 
both.” 

Here  is  no  restriction  whatever  as  to  the  amount  or  form  of  the 
draft;  there  is  nothing  to  prevent  his  making  it  for  $  100,  or  $50, 
or  $10.  There  is  nothing  to  prevent  the  use  of  bank  paper;  and 
the  draft  will  have  the  number  of  signatures  usual  to  bank  paper.. 


13 


It  will  or  maybe  signed  by  the  treasurer,  register,  and  comptroller. 

Now,  sir,  let  me  suppose  that  a  citizen  has  a  demand  upon  the 
government  for  $5,000,  and  applies  to  the  treasurer  for  payment. 
On  what  receiver-general  will  you  (he  will  he  asked)  have  the 
amount?  On  the  receiver-general  at  New  York?  In  what  sum? 
One  half  of  the  sum  in  drafts  of  $100,  and  the  other  in  drafts  of 
$50.  The  treasurer  cannot  lawfully  decline  furnishing  the  required 
drafts.  He  is  bound  by  the  law  to  consult  the  convenience  of  the 
public  creditor.  The  drafts  are  given  to  him.  What  will  he  do 
with  them?  There  is  not  a  spot,  in  the  whole  circumference  of  the 
United  States,  in  which  these  drafts  will  not  command  a  premium  or 
be  at  par.  Every  where  to  the  south  and  west  of  New  York,  they 
will  command  a  premium  of  ^  to  per  cent.  ;  every  where  east  and 
north,  they  will  be  at  par.  What,  1  again  ask,  will  the  holder  do 
with  them?  Will  he  commit  the  indiscretion  or  folly  of  cashing 
these  drafts,  and  expose  himself  to  the  hazard  and  inconvenience 
of  losing  or  carrying  the  specie  about  him.  No  such  thing.  Being 
every  where  better  than  or  equal  to  specie,  he  will  retain  the  drafts, 
and  carry  them  with  him  to  his  home,  and  use  them  in  his  business. 
What  I  have  supposed  likely  to  be  done  by  one,  will  be  done  by  ev¬ 
ery  creditor  of  the  government.  These  drafts,  to  a  considerable  ex¬ 
tent,  will  remain  out,  enter  the  general  circulation,  and  compose  a 
part  of  the  common  currency  of  the  country,  commanding,  at 
particular  place  s,as  notes  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States  have 
done,  and  now  do,  a  premium,  but  any  where  being  certainly  good 
for  the  amount  on  their  face.  All  this  is  perfectly  plain  and  inevi¬ 
table.  And  the  amount  of  this  element  of  government  drafts,  in  the 
general  currency  of  the  country,  will  be  somewhat,  governed  by  the 
amount  of  the  annual  disbursements  of  the  government.  In  the  early 
administration  of  this  treasury  bank,  its  paper  will  command  general 
and  implicit  confidence.  It  will  be  as  much  better  than  the  paper 
of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States  or  the  Bank  of  England,  as  the  re¬ 
sources  of  the  United  States  are  superior  to  those  of  any  mere  pri¬ 
vate  corporation.  Sub-treasurers  and  receivers-general  may  fly  with 
the  public  money  committed  to  their  charge — may  peculate  or  specu¬ 
late  as  they  please,  and,  unlike  the  condition  of  banks  whose  fraudu¬ 
lent  officers  squander  the  means  of  those  institutions,  the  nation 
remains  bound  for  the  redemption  of  all  paper  issued  under  its  au¬ 
thority.  But  the  paper  of  the  late  Bank  of  the  United  States  ac¬ 
quired  a  confidence  every  where,  more  or  less,  in  and  out  of  the 
United  States;  it  was  received  in  Canada,  in  Europe,  and  at  Can¬ 
ton.  The  government  drafts  upon  receivers-genernl  will  have  a 
much  more  sure  and  extensive  circulation.  Who  will  doubt  their 
payment  ?  Who  will  question  the  honor  and  good  faith  of  the 
United  States  in  their  redemption.  The  bankers  of  Europe,  the 
Rothschilds  and  the  Barings,  will  receive  them  without  hesitation, 
and  prefer  them  to  the  specie  which  they  represent,  whenever  the 


19 


rate  of  exchange  is  not  decidedly  against  this  country,  because  t hey 
can  be  more  safely  and  conveniently  kept  than  specie  itself.  And, 
with  respect  to  our  state  banks,  these  treasury  drafts  will  form  the 
basis  of  their  operations.  They  will  be  preferred  to  specie,  because 
they  will  be  more  convenient  and  free  from  the  hazards  incident  to 
the  possession  of  specie.  The  banks  will  require  no  more  specie 
than  the  wants  of  the  community  for  change  make  necessarv. 

Thus,  sir,  will  these  Government  drafts,  or  bank  notes,  as  they 
may  be  called,  remain  out  in  circulation.  The  issues  of  the  first  year, 
under  appropriations  of  the  public  revenue,  will  be  followed  by  the 
issues  of  succeeding  years.  More  and  more  will  it  be  perceived  to  be 
needless  and  indiscreet  to  cash  them  ;  and  more  and  more  will  the 
specie  of  the  country  accumulate  in  the  custody  of  the  receivers-gen- 
eral,  until,  after  a  few  years,  the  greater  part  of  the  specie  of  the 
country  will  be  found  in  the  vaults  of  the  depositaries,  represented  by 
an  equal  amount  of  Government  paper  in  circulation.  I  can  conceive 
of  no  case  or  motive  but  one  for  withdrawing  the  specie  from  the 
vaults  of  the  depositaries,  and  that  is  when,  from  an  unfavourable  state 
of  our  foreign  trade,  the  course  of  foreign  exchange  is  much  against 
us;  and  then  this  system  will  furnish  great  facilities  to  the  export  of 
the  precious  metals. 

In  process  of  time,  it  will  be  seen,  as  was  observed  with  respect  to 
the  Bank  of  Amsterdam,  that  there  is  a  much  larger  amount  of  specie 
in  deposite  with  the  receivers-general  than  is  likely  to  be  called  for 
by  the  paper  representing  it  in  circulation,  in  the  common  transac¬ 
tions  of  the  business  and  commerce  of  the  country.  And  what  has 
been  done  before  will  be  done  again.  Government,  in  a  time  of 
necessity,  will  he  tempted  to  increase  its  paper  issues  upon  the  credit 
of  this  dormant  specie  capital.  It  will  be  tempted  again  and  again 
to  resort  to  this  expedient  since  it  is  easier  to  make  emissions  of 
paper  than  to  lay  the  burden  of  taxation  on  the  People.  The  history 
of  American  paper  money,  during  the  Revolution,  of  French  assign¬ 
ats  and  of  Government  banks  throughout  the  world,  tells  the  whole 
tale,  and  gives  you  the  denouement. 

But  we  shall  be  informed,  as  has  been  insisted,  that  the  bill  cau¬ 
tiously  guards  against  the  degeneracy  of  the  system  into  a  govern¬ 
ment  bank,  by  the  provision  contained  in  the  23d  section,  enjoining 
the  secretary  of  the  treasury  “to  issue  and  publish  regulations  to  en¬ 
force  the  speedy  presentation  of  all  government  drafts  for  payment  at 
the  places  where  payable  ;  and  to  prescribe  the  time,  according  to 
the  different  distances  of  the  depositaries  from  the  seat  of  govern¬ 
ment,  within  which  all  drafts  upon  them,  respectively,  shall  be  pre¬ 
sented  for  payment  ;  and,  in  default  of  such  presentation,  to  direct 
any  other  mode  and  place  of  payment  which  lie  may  deem  proper.” 

Then  it  is  to  depend  upon  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  whether 
we  have  a  government  bank  or  not  !  We  are  delivered  over  to  the 
tender  mercies  of  his  legislation  in  the  form  of  the  regulations  which 


20 


he  may  choose  to  issue  and  publish  !  And  the  extraordinary  power 
is  vested  in  him,  if  any  dare  violate  his  regulations,  of  denouncing  the 
severe  penalty  of  receiving  payment  “  in  any  other  mode  and  place 
which  he  may  deem  proper.”  Now,  sir,  between  a  draft  on  the  re¬ 
ceiver-general  at  St.  Louis  and  at  New  York,  there  will  be  a  differ¬ 
ence  at  all  times  of  at  least  two  per  cent ;  and  at  some  periods  a 
much  (Treater  difference.  Is  it  fitting — is  it  in  accordance  with  the 
genius  of  free  institutions,  with  the  spirit  of  a  country  of  laws,  to  con¬ 
fide  such  a  power  to  a  mere  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  ?  What  a 
power  is  it  not  to  reward  political  friends  or  punish  political  enemies  ! 

But,  nr,  l  look  at  the  matter  of  this  restriction  in  a  higher  point  of 
view.  You  cannot  maintain  it.  Why  should  you  ?  You  have  pro¬ 
vided  all  the  means,  as  you  profess  to  believe,  of  perfect  security  for 
the  custody  of  the  public  money  in  these  public  depositaries.  Why 
should  you  require  the  holder  of  a  government  draft,  often  ignorant 
of  the  legislation  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  to  present  it  for 
payment  by  a  given  day,  under  a  severe  penalty,  depending  upon  his 
discretion  ?  Will  not  the  inconvenience  to  the  community  of  a 
precise  day  and  a  short  day  for  the  presentation  of  the  draft,  he  vast¬ 
ly  greater  than  that  of  the  public  in  retaining  the  money  for  an  in¬ 
definite  day,  until  it  suits  the  holder’s  convenience  to  demand  pay¬ 
ment  ?  And  will  you  not  he  tempted  to  keep  possession  of  the 
specie,  for  the  incidental  advantages  which  it  affords  ?  Ah!  sir; 
are  we  to  overlook  the  possible  uses  to  which,  in  corrupt  days  of  the 
Republic.,  this  dormant  specie  may  be  applied  in  the  crisis  of  a  politi¬ 
cal  election,  or  the  crisis  of  the  existence  of  a  party  in  power  ? 

Congress  will  he  called  upon,  imperatively  called  upon,  by  the 
People,  to  abolish  all  restriction  which  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
may  promulgate  for  the  speedy  presentation  for  payment  of  Govern¬ 
ment  drafts.  The  wants  of  the  People,  and  the  necessity  of  the 
country  for  a  paper  medium,  possessing  a  uniform  value,  and  capable 
of  general  circulation,  will  demand  it  at  your  hands,  and  you  will  be 
most  ready  to  grant  the  required  boon.  We  should  regard  the  sys¬ 
tem  according  to  its  true  and  inherent  character,  and  not  he  deceiv¬ 
ed  by  provisions  inevitably  temporary  in  their  nature,  which  the  poli¬ 
cy  or  the  prudence  of  its  authors  may  throw  around  it.  The  great¬ 
est  want  of  this  country,  at  the  present  period,  in  its  circulating  me¬ 
dium,  is  some  convertible  paper,  which,  at  every  extremity  of  the 
Union,  will  command  the  confidence  of  the  public,  and  circulate 
without  depreciation.  Such  a  paper  will  be  supplied  in  the  form  of 
these  Government  drafts. 

But  if  the  restriction  which  I  have  been  considering  could  he  en¬ 
forced  and  continued,  it  would  not  alter  the  bank  character  of  this 
measure.  Bank  or  no  hank  is  a  question  not  depending  upon  the  du¬ 
ration  of  time  which  its  issues  remain  out,  hut  upon  the  office  which 
they  perform  whilst  out.  The  notes  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  Slates 
of  Pennsylvania  are  not  deprived  of  their  character  of  composing  a 


21 


part  of  the  circulating  medium  of  the  country,  although  they  might 
be  returned  to  the  bank  in  some  ten  or  twenty  days  after  their  issue. 

I  know  that  it  has  been  argued,  and  will  be  argued  again,  that  at 
all  times,  since  the  commencement  of  the  government,  the  practice  of 
the  Treasury  has  been  to  issue  its  drafts  upon  the  public  depositaries; 
that  these  drafts  have  not  heretofore  circulated  as  money ;  and  that, 
if  they  now  do,  it  is  an  incident  which  attaches  no  blame  to  the  Gov¬ 
ernment. 

But  heretofore  these  drafts  were  issued  upon  banks  and  the  holders 
of  them  passed  them  to  their  credit  with  the  banks,  or  received  pay¬ 
ment  in  bank  notes. — The  habit  of  the  country — and  habit  is  a  great 
thing — was  to  use  bank  notes.  Moreover,  there  were  bank  notes  of 
every  kind  in  use — those  which  were  local  and  those  which  were 
general  in  their  credit  and  circulation.  Now,  having  no  Bank  of  the 
United  States  in  existence,  there  are  no  bank  notes  which  maintain 
the  same  value,  and  command  the  public  confidence,  throughout  the 
Union.  You  create,  therefore,  an  inexorable  necessity  for  the  use  of 
Government  drafts  as  a  medium  of  general  circulation,  and  argue 
from  a  state  of  things  when  no  such  necessity  existed. 

The  protestations  of  the  friends  of  the  bill  in  this  chamber,  the  de¬ 
nunciations  of  its  opponents,  and  the  just  horror  which  the  People 
entertain  of  a  Government  bank,  may  prompt  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  slowly  and  slyly  to  lift  the  veil  which  masks  its  true  features. 
A  Government  bank  may  not  suddenly  burst  upon  us,  but  there  it  is, 
embodied  in  this  bill.  And  it  is  not  the  least  objection  to  the  meas¬ 
ure  that  it  depends  upon  the  discretion  of  a  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
to  retard  or  accelerate  the  commencement  of  its  operation  at  his 
pleasure.  Let  the  re-election  of  the  present  Chief  Magistrate  be  se¬ 
cured,  and  you  will  soon  see  the  bank  disclosing  its  genuine  charac¬ 
ter.  But,  thanks  be  to  God,  there  is  a  day  of  reckoning  at  hand. 
All  the  signs  of  the  times  clearly  indicate  its  approach.  And  on  the 
4th  day  of  March,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1S41,  I  trust  that  the  long 
account  of  the  abuses  and  corruptions  of  this  Administration,  in  which 
this  measure  will  be  a  conspicuous  item,  will  be  finally  and  forever 
adjusted. 

Mr.  President,  who  is  to  have  the  absolute  control  of  this  govern¬ 
ment  bank  ?  We  have  seen,  within  a  few  years  past,  a  most  extra¬ 
ordinary  power  asserted  and  exercised.  We  have  seen,  in  a  free, 
representative,  republican  government,  the  power  claimed  by  the 
executive,  and  it  is  now  daily  enforced,  of  dismissing  all  officers  of 
the  government,  without  any  other  cause  than  a  mere  difference  of 
opinion.  No  matter  what  may  be  the  merits  of  the  officer  ;  no  mat¬ 
ter  how  long  and  how  faithfully  he  may  have  served  the  public  ;  no 
matter  what  sacrifices  he  may  have  made  ;  no  matter  how  incompe¬ 
tent,  from  age  and  poverty,  he  may  be  to  gain  a  subsistence  for  him¬ 
self  and  his  family,  he  is  driven  out  to  indigence  and  want,  for  no 
other  reason  than  that  he  differs  in  opinion  with  the  president  on  the 


22 


sub-treasury,  or  some  other  of  the  various  experiments  upon  the 
prosperity  of  this  people.  But  this  is  not  all.  If  you  call  upon  the 
president  to  state  the  reasons  which  induced  him,  in  any  particular 
instance,  to  exercise  this  tremendous  power  of  dismission,  wrapping 
himself  up  in  all  the  dignity  and  arrogance  of  royal  majesty,  he  re¬ 
fuses  to  assign  any  reason  whatever,  and  tells  you  that  it  is  his  pre¬ 
rogative  !  that  you  have  no  right  to  interrogate  him,  as  to  the  motives 
which  have  prompted  him  in  the  exercise  of  any  of  his  constitutional 
powers  !  Nay,  more  :  if  you  apply  to  a  subordinate — a  mere  minion 
of  power — to  inform  you  why  he  has  dismissed  any  of  his  subordi¬ 
nates,  he  replies  that  he  will  not  communicate  the  grounds  of  his 
action.  I  have  understood  that,  in  more  cases  than  one,  the  person 
acting  as  postmaster  general  has  refused,  this  session,  to  inform 
members  of  congress  of  the  grounds  on  which  lie  has  dismissed  dep¬ 
uty  postmasters.  We  have  witnessed  the  application  of  this  power 
to  a  treasurer  of  the  United  States,  recently,  without  the  pretence  of 
his  failure  to  discharge  his  public  duties,  all  of  which  he  performed 
with  scrupulous  exactness,  honor,  and  probity. 

And  what,  sir,  is  the  consequence  of  a  power  so  claimed,  and  so 
exercised?  The  first  is,  that,  in  a  country  of  constitution  and  laws, 
the  basis  and  the  genius  of  which  are  that  there  is,  or  should  be,  the 
most  perfect  responsibility  on  the  part  of  every,  even  the  highest 
functionary,  here  is  a  vast  power,  daily  exercised,  with  the  most  per¬ 
fect  impunity,  and  without  the  possibility  of  arraigning  a  guilty 
chief  magistrate;  for  how  can  he  be  impeached  or  brought  to  trial, 
if  he  will  not  disclose,  and  you  have  no  adequate  means  of  ascer¬ 
taining  the  grounds  on  which  he  has  acted  ? 

The  next  consequence  is,  that  all  the  officers  of  government,  who 
hold  their  offices  by  the  tenure  to  which  we  allude,  hold  them  at  the 
president’s  mercy,  and  without  the  possibility  of  finding  any  redress, 
if  they  are  dismissed  without  caus-*,  they  become  his  pliant  creatures, 
and  feel  that  they  are  bound  implicitly  to  obey  his  will. 

Now,  sir,  put  this  government  bank  into  operation,  and  who  are 
to  be  charged  with  the  administration  of  its  operations?  The  sec¬ 
retary  of  the  treasury,  the  treasurer  of  the  United  States,  the  register 
and  the  controller  of  the  treasury,  and  the  receivers-general,  &c., 
every  one  of  them  holding  his  office  at  the  pleasure  and  mercy  of  the 
president  ;  every  one  of  them,  perhaps,  depending  for  his  bread  up¬ 
on  the  will  of  the  president;  every  one  of  them  taught,  by  sad  expe¬ 
rience,  to  know  that  his  safest  course  is,  to  mould  his  opinions,  and 
shape  his  conduct  so  as  to  please  the  president  ;  every  one  of  them 
knowing  perfectly  that,  if  dismissed,  he  is  without  the  possibility  of 
any  remedy  or  redress  whatever.  In  such  a  deplorable  state  of 
things,  this  government  bank  will  be  the  mere  bank  of  the  president 
of  the  United  States.  lie  will  be  its  president,  cashier,  and 
teller.  Yes,  sir,  this  complete  subjection  of  all  the  subordinate 
officers  of  the  government  to  the  will  of  the  president,  will  make  him 


i  X 


0 


23 


sole  director,  president,  cashier,  and  teller  of  this  government  bank. 
The  so  much  dreaded  union  of  the  purse  and  the  sword  will  at  last 
be  consummated.  And  the  usurpation,  by  which  the  public  depos- 
ites,  in  1833,  were  removed,  by  the  advancement  of  the  one  and  the 
removal  of  the  other  secretary  of  the  treasury,  will  not  only  be  finally 
legalized  and  sanctioned,  hut  the  enormity  of  the  danger  of  that  pre¬ 
cedent  will  he  transcended  by  a  deliberate  act  of  the  congress  of  the 
United  States  ! 

Mr.  President,  for  ten  long  years  we  have  been  warring  against 
the  alarming  growth  of  executive  power  ;  but,  although  we  have 
been  occasionally  cheered,  it  has  been  constantly  advancing,  and 
never  receding.  You  may  talk  as  you  please  about  bank  expan¬ 
sions  :  there  has  been  no  pernicious  expansion  in  this  country  like 
that  of  executive  power  ;  and,  unlike  the  operations  of  banks,  this 
power  never  has  any  periods  of  contraction.  You  may  denounce  as 
you  please  the  usurpations  of  congress  :  there  has  been  no  usurpa¬ 
tion  hut  that  of  the  executive,  whioh  has  been  both  of  the  powers  of 
other  co-ordinate  departments  of  this  government,  and  upon  the 
states.  There  scarcely  remains  any  power  in  this  government  but 
that  of  the  President.  He  suggests,  originates,  controls,  checks 
every  thing.  The  insatiable  spirit  of  the  Stuarts  for  power  and  pre¬ 
rogative,  was  brought  upon  our  American  throne  on  the  4th  of 
March,  1829.  It  came  under  all  the  usual  false  and  hypocritical 
pretences  and  disguises  of  love  of  the  people,  desire  of  reform,  and 
diffidence  of  power.  The  Scotch  dynasty  still  continues.  We  have 
had  Charles  the  First,  and  now  have  Charles  the  Second.  But  I 
again  thank  God  that  our  deliverance  is  not  distant;  and  that,  on 
the  4th  of  March,  1S41,  a  great  and  glorious  revolution,  without 
blood,  and  without  convulsion,  will  be  achieved. 


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